West Ham manager, David Moyes has called for “resilience and toughness” after a dramatic Premier League defeat at Newcastle United.
Comeback goals from Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen either side of Alexander Isak’s penalty brace for the Magpies saw West Ham lead Newcastle 3-2 after 77 minutes, only for the Magpies to win 4-3 following Harvey Barnes’ late brace.
The result left West Ham still sat seventh in the table but now one point ahead of Newcastle who moved up to eighth position.
Speaking to the media post-match, Moyes put West Ham’s defeat down to weak defending and silly refereeing decisions.
“We scored some good goals, but when we got 3-1 up we just weren’t showing the elements of defensive duty which you have to do.
“It looked too easy today, but I have to say that so many decisions went against us today.”
Moyes went on to admit that there is an air of “disappointment,” amongst his players after they failed to hang on for at least one point.
Reflecting upon West Ham’s performance which saw them punish Newcastle’s high defence, Moyes described their attacking effort as “a real threat”, despite not performing “defensively sound” especially at 3-1 up in the second half.
West Ham are back in action on Tuesday (2 April) at home to London rivals, Tottenham, with Moyes calling for his players to quickly refocus and dig deeper than they did on Tyneside.
“We have to get ourselves back on it and show more resilience and toughness, which we didn’t do today.”
One of the defining moments of West Ham’s defeat came in the 69th minute when Antonio was substituted for Kalvin Phillips, who quickly conceded a penalty with an unlucky foul on Anthony Gordon.
Explaining his decision to substitute Antonio for the Manchester City loanee, Moyes admitted that he had wanted “another midfield player” before Newcastle could make it 3-2, which proved ironic given that Phillips was at fault for the Magpies’ second goal.
Moyes went on to bemuse the fact that Gordon had put “his foot in front of Kalvin and I don’t know how he’s supposed to see his leg.”
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